Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 14. The Slave Market. (Part I)
On their way back to the Royal Palace, Laien and Cran managed to pass by a street leading to the district where the slaves were being amassed for sale.
Previously, Laien had ignored similar places every time. He didn’t like the concept of slavery, but he wasn’t about to go around and try to save the world like some valiant knight. Even if he became an expert on Rudford’s level, he would still be unable to change the way this world worked, much less the current him.
Yet… as a cart with around twenty slaves packed tightly rolled past him and Cran, Laien couldn’t restrain himself from taking a look.
What he saw however instantly made him regret this choice; those people were all wearing tattered, dirty rags and surely enough, hadn’t bathed in weeks if not in months. They were starved, many of them appeared to be beaten up; their eyes were all lifeless as if they no longer cared if they would live or be killed. Rather, they perhaps hoped to find relief in the cold arms of death.
And yet, there was one exception amongst those twenty slaves which didn’t escape Laien’s notice. One brown-skinned girl had a different look in her eyes. Her expression was stern, but she hadn’t yet given up. She seemed to desire freedom… and one day, a revenge on the people who had captured her. The strong aura of hers caused Laien to look at her for the entire time the cart was passing by.
The brown-skinned girl looked to be too old to be called a girl, but too young to be called a woman. Her body was covered with bruises, just like was her face. Her hair had apparently been cut short by a knife a few months ago, but it had grown out a bit since then. Although she was sitting while clutching her legs, it wasn’t hard to spot that her breasts were of an impressive size. They weren’t extremely large, but they were big enough to draw gazes.
“I’m going there for a bit,” Laien said to Cran and followed the carriage. Cran wanted to say something, but he closed his mouth and shook his head.
“He needs to learn on his own that buying and freeing slaves won’t change anything. It will only earn you a few thanks and some self-gratification,” Cran thought to himself. For a second he considered playing the role of a guard for Laien since he was entering a shady place, but he soon realized how needless that would be.
Laien had been doing just fine for the past two years. There was no way he would need a chaperone now all of the sudden. Thus, deciding not to be overly meddlesome, he headed back to the Royal Palace.
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“This skin color… they must be from the east, all over the mountains… Jarncare Grand Duchy perhaps?” Laien pondered silently.
The Jarncare Grand Duchy had lost the war two years ago and had been forced to forfeit nearly half of its territory, so it wasn’t surprising to many of their former citizens to be captured and turned into slaves by the victors and the roaming mercenary bands seeking easy profit.
As Laien followed the cart, he saw many more slaves put on the display at both sides of the street. Without even looking he could feel the despair, fear and hopelessness which filled the air and here… both metaphorically and quite literally.
“What a stench,” Laien frowned. The smell of urine, excrements and unwashed bodies was beginning to grow unbearable the deeper into the district he walked. “It should be somewhere there,” he focused on searching through the vast contents of his interspatial ring and after ten seconds or so, found what he was looking for.
He withdrew a golden necklace with a crystal-clear blue pearl attached to it, materializing it already on his neck. He sent a minuscule amount of spiritual energy into the pearl, which in response released a refreshing, sea-like smell which completely shut off all the surrounding odor.
After another five minutes or so, the cage from atop the carriage he was following had finally been lifted by the servants and placed on the ground in front of one of the larger, more ‘splendid’ shops in the area. The four servants left soon afterward, not paying him much attention at all.
“I wonder where all the people are,” Laien wondered, seeing no merchants or customers; only locked up and chained slaves and the servants working around the area. “Maybe they are only making the deliveries… well, it wouldn’t make much sense to sell the slaves when they are so dirty,” he assumed, then approached the cage and crouched in front of the girl who had aroused his interest.
The girl looked away, perhaps knowing that her hateful gaze could only bring her more trouble. She wished to be free again… but she took Laien to be a son of one of the merchants and no one else. All she could hope from such a person was that no pain would be inflicted upon her because of his whims.
“What’s your name?” Laien asked, but the girl ignored him completely, pretending not to hear. “How old are you? I’m twelve,” he said, and again was met with no response at all.
“How were you captured?” Laien asked another question, not getting discouraged. Well, this time, at last, he got the girl to respond to him.
“Our village got raided with no warning, the adults who tried to fight were killed, the rest of us got enslaved,” she said in a low voice, staring at Laien with a hateful gaze. “Is this much of an answer detailed enough for you, little shit, or do you want me to tell you the stories of how I was raped along the way to this place?” she asked furiously, unable to keep her reason and bite her tongue as she should have done to avoid punishment.
“No,” Laien said quietly while slowly shaking his head. “I just wanted to know a bit more about you,” he said calmly, not trying to rush his explanation.
“About me?” the brown-skinned girl snorted. “What’s the point of you learning about me and my past? Or is it some kind of fetish of yours?” she asked disdainfully. If a glare could kill, then Laien would have surely died under hers by now.
“I wouldn’t want to end up helping a bad person,” Laien said with a shrug of his shoulders. “If you were to be freed, what would you do?” he followed up with a question, keeping his cool despite the girl’s reactions.
The brown-skinned girl froze momentarily, then raised her head and took a proper look at Laien. “You would free me?” she couldn’t help but ask. She had given up the hope of anyone appearing out of nowhere and helping her during the long months she spent as a slave, but now someone was offering to give her back her freedom?
This boy… he wasn’t just making fun of her, was he? If he was and she trusted him, then she couldn’t be sure if she could resist going mad with helplessness and anger.
“It’s just my whim,” Laien shrugged his shoulders. This place, all the suffering around him… he couldn’t be so hypocritical as to act like some kind of savior before this girl. He didn’t want gratitude or to be treated by her with respect; he knew he was doing something stupid and selfish, so he at least wanted not to act unreasonably.
The brown-skinned girl trembled slightly at Laien’s words. Her heart was beginning to beat with cautious excitement as she saw a clear ray of hope in front of her for the first time in months. She still didn’t fully trust this boy… but she wanted to believe that he would do as he says.
For a second, she wondered what should she tell the youth in reply to his question. What would she do if she were freed, eh…?
The truth was she would return to her homeland and do everything possible to help her relatives, then get the vengeance on those who enslaved them… and on those who betrayed them. However, was this really the answer this young boy wanted to hear? Wouldn’t it be better to tell him that she just wanted to live in peace and buy her family and friends out of the slavery if possible?
“No… what the point in lying?” the girl laughed at herself. Before, she wouldn’t have even considered being dishonest with anyone for her own gain, but those last months had a significant influence on her thinking and behavior. Yet, she held by her principles and told the boy the truth in a few simple sentences.
“I would have done the same,” Laien chuckled a little and smiled sadly at the girl. He definitely wouldn’t want to ever find himself in her position. “Let me find the merchant who owns the place, I will be back in a bit,” he said and stood up, leaving the hopeful but nervous girl alone for the moment.
Technically, he could have shattered the cage and even the chains on her hands and feet, but that would have caused too much of a scene. He would rather buy the girl, then help her out for a bit and in the end let go wherever she wanted.
Luckily, it seemed like he wouldn’t need to look too far as two men, each accompanied by his own two guards were already walking in his direction while talking with each other.
“Dear friend, each time we get a new delivery, you insist on searching through the newly arrived stock immediately. Can’t you at least wait for me to properly wash the merchandise? Dear Heavens, it stinks as bad as always,” the middle-aged slave merchant complained, failing to understand what his friend’s reasoning was.
“Didn’t I already tell you?” the well-clothed man asked resignedly. “This one,” he pointed at one of the young slaves as they were passing by one of the many cages at a slow pace.
The attendant accompanying the two men made a quick note, making sure that the well-clothed man would receive exactly the slaves he asked for.
“After they get washed and fed, they begin feeling better,” the well-clothed man explained. “Only when they are like this, in the midst of despair so deep that they can’t or don’t want to hear what we are saying, can you see which ones still have a will to live,” he elaborated with a slight smile.
“I understand that much, but why would you want slaves who want to live? Isn’t transporting them in this manner done exactly to break them in so they won’t cause any trouble for their future owners?” the slave merchant asked, still unable to comprehend his friend’s way of thinking.
“Shallow, too shallow!” the well-clothed man said with disdain and meanwhile, pointed out two more slaves to the attendant. “It’s not hard to get your hands on those useless slaves who are only good to be cleaners or servants fit for mundane jobs. However, the slaves with character have their own uses,” he said with a crafty smile. After all, it was exactly in this manner how he had gotten his fortune.
“For example?” the slave merchant inquired with a sigh, somehow doubting his friend’s words.
“That’s not an information I would give you for free, my dear friend,” the well-clothed man said with a laugh.
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“Hmph,” the slave merchant frowned. He was pretty sure that his friend was only making a fool out of him to sound smart, but he didn’t pursue the discussion any further. “Eh?” he raised his eyebrows, noticing an out of place youth seemingly waiting for them some distance away.
“Kid, this place is off-limits today. The auction will be held at the auction house tomorrow evening, so if you want to buy something for yourself come then,” the slave merchant called out amicably. Although he didn’t recognize the boy, he guessed that he was a son of one of the regular clients as otherwise, he wouldn’t be wandering alone in this type of a district.
“You are making an exception for him, so make one for me too,” Laien said casually, knowing that in the end, he would get his own way regardless of everything.
“Kids these days,” the merchant sighed and was about to shoo Laien away, but his friend raised his hand and stopped him.
“Boy, how about it,” the well-dressed man said with a smile. “Show us which slave you’ve picked. If you have a good eye for them, we will make an exception for you. If no, you will need to wait until the auction,” he proposed, very fond of little games of this kind.
Laien chuckled in amusement. Normally, he wouldn’t have accepted an arbitrary game like this one, but he was sure of that girl’s ‘high quality’. He heard most of the talk between this man and the slave merchant and saw which slaves he was picking, so he knew he pretty much guaranteed to win unless the man chose to lie to him.
“Come for a bit then,” Laien said confidently, then turned around and started walking.
“Let’s go,” the well-clothed man said with a laugh, for the time being putting off his evaluation of the merchandise.
The slave merchant wasn’t too happy with this development, but kept his comments to himself and followed with his two guards and an attendant.
“Her,” Laien said with a slight smile. He didn’t even need to point at the girl as she immediately looked directly at him, barely restraining her emotions.
The brown-skinned girl was obviously very nervous this whole time. When the boy who promised to free her walked off to find a merchant, she had been incredibly worried that he wouldn’t return… but without even disappearing from her sigh he exchanged a few words with the bunch of men and returned. In just a few more moments, she would once again be free…!
“Hmph, he just picked a random girl with big breasts, he’s just a kid after all,” the slave merchant thought with a snort, but when he peeked at his friend his expression immediately changed.
“This girl…!” the well-clothed man breathed in. He knew of a regular client of the Pleasure’s House who was a Marquis who had been looking for exactly this type of a girl.
The Marquis probably could have found a similar one in the Heavenly Palace, but there… the more unique types of activities were prohibited and thus he wasn’t interested. However, if he were to send this girl over to that Marquis… then he would gain a powerful ally on the political scene at the cost of a mere few dozen gold coins!
“She definitely is high-quality goods,” the well-clothed man said, causing the girl to frown at him. “However, she is too good for you. I’ll let you take three other ones of your choice, but I will be buying this one,” he stated plainly. As far as he was concerned, getting into trouble with a random noble’s son would be more than worth the trouble in exchange for a favor from a Marquis.
Hearing the well-clothed man’s words, the brown-skinned girl trembled in a mixture of anger and fear. She didn’t know what the man was planning for her, but just by the look in his eyes, she could tell it wasn’t anything good. To him, she held absolutely no value as a person; she was an object and it showed even in the way he spoke about her.
“And here I wanted to play it nice,” Laien said resignedly and shook his head. “You are the owner here, right? How much do you want to sell her to me, not to him?” he asked straightforwardly, causing the slave merchant to waver. If he could make a good business out of this argument and get more money out of his friend… then he definitely would do so!
“Hmph.” The well-clothed man eyed Laien angrily. “If you think your family can offend an Earl over one slave, then go ahead and name your price,” he rebuked, clearly stating his position in the societal hierarchy.
“Five hundred gold coins,” Laien offered casually, choosing to go five times over the price he had heard the excellent slaves would usually fetch on the market.
When Laien stated his offer, the well-clothed man’s face twitched and so did the slave merchant’s, but for entirely different reasons.
“Six hundred,” the well-clothed man said angrily. He could pressure the boy into giving up… but he couldn’t bring himself that low. He was an Earl, if the news he had needed to threaten a kid to get a slave got out, he would become a laughing stock of the whole country!
“One crystal coin,” Laien replied with a shrug of his shoulders, not in the mood to slowly increase the price by hundreds.
“Do you even have this much?” the well-clothed man questioned, beginning to worry if Laien wasn’t a son of someone he perhaps shouldn’t offend after all.
“Of course.” Laien sighed and produced a crystal coin and swirled it between his fingers. “Are you going to back off or not, old man?” he asked, finding it regrettable to waste too much money if not necessary when he had been reminded of its value just about half an hour ago. If he allowed everyone to scam him, then no matter how much coins he had, he would sooner or later end up with nothing!
“I… take her, she’s yours,” the well-clothed man grit his teeth and conceded. From the way this boy behaved, he could tell he wasn’t just any normal kid. His title of the Earl made no impression on the boy either, what further weaned him away from continuing the squabble. The risk and reward were simply not calculating well enough anymore.
“Here you go,” Laien smiled and threw the crystal coin to the slave merchant, who grabbed it tightly and immediately instructed one of his guards to open the cage and let the girl out.
“Here’s the key to her restraints,” the merchant produced a rusty key from his interspatial ring and handed it to Laien. “You should be careful with her though; although she’s weakened, she should be a martial practitioner of the sixth rank. If you aren’t careful, she can easily kill you and run off,” he warned, hoping to get more money in case the boy request help in transporting the goods he bought.
“Is that so.” Laien smiled slightly and approached the brown-skinned girl. “She’s quite tall.” Now that the girl was standing straight, he could see how much taller she was than him; while he was a bit over one meter fifty, she was well over one meter seventy.
Laien quickly proceeded to unlock the chains on the girl’s hands, then crouched and did the same with the chains on her legs.
All the while, the well-clothed man and the slave merchant looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Wasn’t he just warned that this girl was dangerous? What was he thinking removing her restraints just like that? Did he have a death wish?
Laien, however, didn’t pay the men much attention anymore. He smiled at the girl and gestured her to follow him, what she promptly did; the sooner she would leave this godforsaken place, the better.
“If he gets himself killed, it’s not my responsibility,” the slave merchant said nervously, intending to rely on his friend’s testimony in case something bad happened.
“He didn’t look that stupid,” the well-clothed man said bitterly. “He should have his own guards waiting from him nearby, I don’t think we need to worry about him,” he reassured his friend, then got back to looking for good slaves to relieve some of the sourness he was just forced to swallow.
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“So, what’s your name?” Laien asked while leading the brown-skinned girl through some less crowded alleys. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t want to attract too much attention in the state she was in, so he spared her from the experience.
“Kishara,” the girl answered. “I’m fifteen if you want to know,” she added neutrally, not sure how she should behave towards the boy who helped her.
“Kishara… those eastern names sure sound exotic,” Laien mentioned randomly. “You have a strange accent too,” he pointed out, quite sure it was his first time talking with someone who lived in a different part of the continent.
“As I said, I’m from Jarncare Grand Duchy. To me, you are the one who is speaking strange,” Kishara said with a slight, careful smile.
At the same time, she silently wondered what the boy’s name was, but wasn’t sure if she should be asking that question. Normally, she would have asked straightforwardly… alas, she wasn’t in a normal state of mind at the moment.
“I didn’t introduce myself yet, right?” Laien brought up with a chuckle, noticing Kishara’s consternation. “I’m Laien,” he said simply and smiled at Kishara, who responded alike. However, one could easily notice the uncertainty and uneasiness in this smile of hers.
“Well, let’s find you some place to wash up and get you some proper clothes. I’m sure you will feel much better afterward,” Laien spoke lightheartedly.
Kishara nodded, silently deciding that Laien was indeed somebody she could trust. In the past months, she had seen way too much hypocrisy to trust even those who appeared to be good men. If she felt Laien was one of those two-faced people, she wouldn’t have hesitated to attack him, kill him take all his belongings and try to flee the city on her own.
However, Laien really appeared to be a normal, good-hearted boy. He had even gone as far as to remove her shackles right away, though she would call this one act naivety than anything else. She didn’t dislike this kind of good-hearted, naïve people though.
“After all of that, this nightmare ends just like this…” Kishara thought to herself, still finding it a bit hard to believe how lucky she was.
“Wait a second, this district is…?” Kishara groaned inwardly. She was utterly exhausted physically and mentally, but how could she not recognize a red district? “Eh… maybe he isn’t as good of a person as I gave him credit to,” she mused, feeling a little disappointed.
“Oh well, he is just a boy after all. If all he wants in return for his help is my body for the night, then I shouldn’t complain,” she concluded silently and kept walking without complaint. A while later, she entered one of the larger, multi-floor brothels with Laien.
“A room with a bath for one night,” Laien said as he approached the counter and the man behind it, who appeared to be the brothel’s overseer. “Also, I’d like to have someone sent to the city to buy her some clothes. Some normal ones and a few travel sets fit for horse riding,” he added and before the man at the desk could start complaining, placed two piles of two hundred gold coins each before him.
“One is for the room, the other one is for the clothes, no change needed,” Laien said with a resigned smile, very familiar with the greedy look which appeared in the man’s eyes. Money… in some places, if you had enough money you could do anything you wanted.
“If the clothes brought are good enough, I will add another one hundred gold on top of it,” Laien said casually, worried that whoever ends up going to shop would end up being stingy just to keep more of the money for himself.
“Yes, yes, young master!” the man at the counter rubbed his hands together and bowed repeatedly. He no longer cared about the slave-like appearance of the girl who entered with the boy; tonight, he would earn as much as he normally did in three or four years! He would definitely provide this youth with the best service possible!
“Allow me to take you and the young lady to our high-quality chambers on the highest floors. There, no one will disturb you at all,” the man said courteously, sweeping the four hundred gold coins into his interspatial ring. “Come, come,” he urged with a smile, gesturing the two to follow him up the stairs.
“He sure gives out gold with a light hand,” Kishara thought as the three of them were walking up the stairs. “I wonder which rich family’s heir is he?” she wondered, but just as they were passing by the third floor, where a large open strip-bar was located… she noticed the bulky, huge figure of a certain man and instantly froze in place.
“Hrm?” Laien stopped quickly and after seeing the furious expression on Kishara’s face and the murderous look in her eyes, he followed her line of sight and saw a huge, muscular man drinking and laughing on a sofa with three half-naked young boys around him.
“Little brother…!” Kishara said through her teeth, clenching her fists so hard that blood started dripping from her hands. That man… he was one of those people she couldn’t forgive no matter what! For what he did to her little brother she wanted to see him being devoured by bugs, not laughing and drinking all happy in a brothel…!
Unable to restrain the hatred she felt for the bulky, muscular man, Kishara gathered as much Qi as she could in the palm of her hand and leaped into the air. She swung her hand, preparing to thrust at the man’s head in a clawing motion. She didn’t think about what would happen later, right now all she wanted to do was to kill this forsaken human trash!
Her Qi-covered palm slashed through the air, closing onto the man’s face. She could already see the sharp Qi piercing his skull and splattering his brain onto the walls… but alas, the man reacted in time.
When she was inches away from killing him, the massive man raised his hands with speed and agility one wouldn’t have expected from his bulky body. He grabbed her hand and clenched tightly, stopping the attack with ease and suspending her in mid.
“And what do we have here?” the massive man laughed, unlike the three young boys and many other guests not displaying any nervousness or fear. He had survived more battles than he could count in his life; a crude attempt on his life like that wasn’t even enough to get his heart racing.
In an act of desperation, Kishara twisted her body in an unnatural way and kicked at the man’s head, ignoring the sharp pain in her shoulder and elbow.
She knew that after her ambush had failed and she had been grabbed, she stood no chance against this mercenary. Even if she was in a perfect condition, she would still be far from being his match. However, she couldn’t just accept death and not fight to the last breath after everything she had suffered to get to this point…!
Yet, just as expected, the massive man blocked Kishara’s kick with his forearm without much effort. He then used the same hand to punch Kishara in the stomach while simultaneously releasing his grip on her hand, what resulted in her light body being blown away back to the stairs, where she fell crudely.